Supreme Court won't fast-track ruling on Trump's claim of immunity

[Igel]

86. Because they don't need to, that's why.

Look at it this way.

They choose to let the usual order of events play out. They get to see what the appeals courts dig up and have to say. They get more information on which to base their decision. But this isn't a "delay", it's just not a "rush"--for something that needs to be done right, not rushed. It's like saying the 65 mph speed limit on the freeway is a "delay" when I'm in a hurry for work and I'm slow-tracking things by not going 90 mph.

At the same time, it's a slam-dunk the appeals court will side with Smith. 2 Obama appointees, 1 Bush(1), they'll go with Smith and it won't probably go past Jan. 20.

Then Trump is in the position of appealing. If Smith appeals, there's a strong bias for SCOTUS to pick up the case because it's the DOJ/Executive branch appealing. But a defendant? Defendants get less luv, a greater percentage are just passed up. And they'll pass up the appeal quickly unless there's something obviously wrong with the lower courts' decisions.

Now, consider if SCOTUS did pick it up, more likely if Smith loses at the appellate level or if SCOTUS picked it up a few days ago. Yes, there's winter recess and I'd guess that they've made plans and since this isn't a life-and-death issue, they could wait. Plus it's better to get it right than rushed if you're interested in principles of our democracy instead of just wielding power, and the only reason to rush is a political reason--it's been nearly 3 years, what's another 3 or 4 months? Unless you have a special prosecutor making a blatantly political decision to be involved in the electoral process.

But SCOTUS 'fast-track' would still necessarily mean collecting briefs, hearing arguments, getting more briefs. After all, it's not like Trump is only involved in one court case. Then there'd be the SCOTUS-internal arguments. They might easily 'fast track it' and issue the opinion in late May or early June. Whereas by having the appellate court do the dirty work and then just denying a defendant's appeal works just fine and is faster by far.